Green Screen: Environmental Perspectives through Film

ENVIR ST/HIST/HIST SCI 125

Gregg MitmanVilas Research and William Coleman Professor of History of Science, Medical History and Environmental StudiesEmail »Website »

COURSE DESCRIPTION

From Teddy Roosevelt’s 1909 African safari to the Hollywood blockbuster King Kong, from the world of Walt Disney to The March of the Penguins, cinema has been a powerful force in shaping public and scientific understanding of nature throughout the 20th and 21st century.

How can film shed light on changing environmental ideas and beliefs in American thought, politics, and culture? And how can we come to see and appreciate contested issues of race, class, and gender in nature on screen? This course explores such questions as we come to understand the role of film in helping to define the contours of past, present, and future environmental visions in the United States and their impact on the real-world struggles of people and wildlife throughout the world.